Bible Strands
James 3:18
Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — James writes to Jewish believers in the diaspora, closing a contrast between earthly and heavenly wisdom (3:13–18). This is the final clause of that contrast: what the wisdom from above actually produces.
The words — karpos (καρπός) is "fruit" in the agricultural sense of a crop that follows a season of labor, not a single harvest. speiretai (σπείρεται) is present passive — "is being sown" — marking the work as ongoing and not merely the agent's own effort.
The thread — The sowing/reaping pattern appears in Hosea 10:12 (sow righteousness, reap love) and Philippians 1:11 (fruit of righteousness through Christ). Matthew 5:9 ties peacemaking directly to identity as God's children.
Why it lands — The verse makes peacemaking a sustained practice, not a single act, and ties the reward to the sower rather than the soil. It asks the reader to be the one in the field, not the one watching the harvest.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
Cross-references
- Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
- Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.
- Philippians 1:11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
- Isaiah 32:16 Then justice will inhabit the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the fertile field.
- Galatians 6:8 The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
- Proverbs 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
- Proverbs 11:18 The wicked man earns an empty wage, but he who sows righteousness reaps a true reward.
- John 4:36 Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.
- Hebrews 12:11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.
- James 1:20 for man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires.